1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable-sized and handy syringes for irrigation and, more particularly, to a syringe for vaginal irrigation, designed to be easily and effectively used for irrigating monstrous secretions from the vagina particularly during or after a menstruation, thus removing monstrous odor from the vagina and allowing the user to feel refreshed at the vagina in addition to keeping the vagina clean and sanitary.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During or after a menstruation, monstrous secretions are remained within the vagina, thus causing odor and poor sanitation at the vagina and allowing a woman to feel uncomfortable. In order to overcome such problems caused by the menstruations, most women manually wash their vaginas by hand using irrigating solutions in the prior art. However, such a manual vaginal washing is problematic in that it fails to accomplish a desired vaginal irrigation effect and may cause an infection of the vagina by infectious bacteria of the hands and an injury on the vaginal wall by the fingernails.
In an effort to overcome such a problem experienced in the manual vaginal washing, Korean Laid-open Publication No. 96-3956 discloses a syringe for vaginal irrigation. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings, the above conventional syringe for vaginal irrigation comprises an elastic hollow barrel 10 assembled with a removable cap 30 having an irrigation nozzle 20. In the above syringe, the removable cap 30 is designed to assemble the nozzle 20 with the mouth of the barrel 10 in a way such that the nozzle 20 is positioned inside or outside the barrel 10 as desired. When it is necessary to keep the syringe out of use for a period of time, the cap 30 is tightened to the mouth of the barrel 10, with the nozzle 20 positioned inside the barrel 10 so as to be protected from the atmosphere. On the other hand, the cap 30 has to be tightened to the mouth of the barrel 10, with the nozzle 20 positioned outside the barrel 10, when it is necessary to use the syringe. The irrigation nozzle 20 is provided with a plurality of ejection holes 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 for ejecting an irrigating solution from the barrel 10 into the vagina.
However, the above syringe for vaginal irrigation is problematic in that it has a generally linear shape from the top of the nozzle 20 to the bottom of the barrel 10, and so the syringe does not meet the structure or the posture of the human body during a vaginal irrigation. That is, in order to irrigate the vagina, the syringe for vaginal irrigation is applied to the vagina by a user, with the barrel 10 being gripped by a hand and the nozzle 20 being inserted into the vagina. In such a case, the vagina is nearly positioned vertically, and so the user necessarily grips the syringe almost vertically so as to make the nozzle 20 to be directed upward in an almost vertical direction and inserts the nozzle 20 upward into the almost vertically positioned vagina. After the insertion of the nozzle 20 into the vagina, the barrel 10 is manually compressed by a hand gripping the barrel 10 to eject the vaginal irrigating solution under pressure from the barrel 10 into the vagina through the ejection holes 25 to 29 of the nozzle 20. It is thus very difficult for the user to grip the syringe while irrigating the vagina. In addition, when the barrel 10 is compressed once to eject the irrigating solution into the vagina, the pressurized solution primarily flows from the barrel 10 to the nozzle 20 and is partially ejected into the vagina through the holes 25 to 29 of the nozzle 20. After the first ejection of the pressurized irrigating solution from the nozzle 20 into the vagina, the compressed barrel 10 is released from the compressing force temporarily and expands to restore its original volume before a second ejection of the solution. When the barrel 10 restores its original volume as described above, the remaining solution within the nozzle 20 naturally flows back to the barrel 10 since the syringe is positioned vertically. Such a compressing and releasing action for the barrel 10 has to be repeated several times during a vaginal irrigation process, and so a substantial amount of irrigating solution is not ejected into the vagina, but is finally remained within the barrel 10 and has to be discarded at the end of the vaginal irrigation. This undesirably causes waste of vaginal irrigating solution.
In addition, when it is necessary to use the syringe of FIG. 3 for vaginal irrigation, the cap 30 has to be removed from the mouth of the barrel 10 and is tightened again to the mouth of the barrel 10 with the nozzle 20 positioned outside the barrel 10 as shown in FIG. 4. In such a case, the cap 30 is removed from the mouth of the barrel 10 prior to removing the nozzle 20 from the barrel 10. Thereafter, the nozzle 20 is assembled with the cap 30 in a way such that the nozzle 20 is projected from the top surface of the cap 30. After assembling the nozzle 20 with the cap 30, the cap 30 is fully tightened again to the mouth of the barrel 10 with the nozzle 20 positioned outside the barrel 10 as shown in FIG. 4. After a desired vaginal irrigation is accomplished, the nozzle 20 has to be changed from the position of FIG. 4 to the position of FIG. 3 by handling the cap 30 and nozzle 20 along with the barrel 10 through a process inverse to that described above. In a brief description, the above syringe for vaginal irrigation forces a user to disassemble and assemble the parts of the syringe before and after every vaginal irrigation, and so said syringe is very inconvenient to users.
Another problem, experienced in the above syringe for vaginal irrigation, resides in that the nozzle 20 has a structural defect. That is, the nozzle 20 is gradually reduced in its diameter in a direction from the outside end to the inside end, and so the labium is expanded in its diameter to allow an insertion of the large-diameter outside end of the nozzle 20 into the vagina through the labium. However, when the nozzle 20 is fully inserted into the vagina, the labium cannot quickly shrink, and so it fails to closely surround the small-diameter inside end of the nozzle 20, thus remaining a gap between the nozzle 20 and the labium. Therefore, the irrigating solution undesirably flows from the vagina to the outside through the gap and contaminates the hands and the barrel 10, and so the syringe regrettably makes a user feel unpleasant during a vaginal irrigation.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a syringe for vaginal irrigation, which is easily and effectively used for irrigating monstrous secretions from the vagina particularly during or after a menstruation, thus removing monstrous odor from the vagina and allowing the user to feel refreshed at the vagina in addition to keeping the vagina clean and sanitary.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a syringe for vaginal irrigation, which has a portable and handy size and accomplishes a desired vaginal irrigation effect, and is easily produced through a simple production process in addition to allowing a user to easily and simply assemble and disassemble the parts of the syringe.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a syringe for vaginal irrigation, comprising: an elastic barrel containing a vaginal irrigating solution therein, the barrel having an externally-threaded mouth; an L-shaped elbow pipe engaging with the externally-threaded mouth of the barrel at the first end thereof, the first end of the elbow pipe being internally threaded so as to engage with the externally-threaded mouth of the barrel, the elbow pipe being also externally threaded at its second end; and a hollow vaginal insert engaging with the externally-threaded second end of the elbow pipe through a screw type engagement, the vaginal insert having a linear and tapered profile with the outside diameter of the insert being gradually reduced in a direction from its first end around the second end of the elbow pipe to its second end, the vaginal insert having regularly formed four axial grooves on its external surface in an extent from its middle portion to its second end, with a plurality of side ejection holes being formed along each of the axial grooves and a central ejection hole being formed at the center of the second end of the insert, whereby the syringe has an L-shaped profile when the barrel, the elbow pipe and the vaginal insert are completely assembled into a single body.